March 04, 2007

Liveblogging the Secular Islam Summit

I'm at the Secular Islam Summit in St. Petersburg, Florida. I see that Gateway Pundit is here, too.

The show opened with Ibn Warraq and Irshad Manji. Both gave enjoyable and enlightening presentations. Warraq rejected the idea that our problems in the Middle East arise out of poverty, war or colonialism. He emphasized that a real push for human rights must be a principal component of the fight against the Islamists.

For her part, Manji emphasized the need to let reformers and potential reformers know that we will support them. "They are on our side," she says, "we need to let them know that we are on their side.

After Warraq and Manji, we heard from a panel discussion featuring Tawfik Hamid and Nibras Kazimi, and moderated by Phyllis Chesler. Tawfik Hamid is a former member of Jamaa Islamiya, which was led at the time by Ayman al Zawahiri. Nibras Kazimi is a visiting scholar at the Hudson Institute and a columnist for the New York Sun.

Hamid recounted the type of indoctrination delivered to young jihadists, including the jihadist slogan "thinking is for infidels." He lamented the lack of a theologically-based "peaceful Islam," and advocated the need for one.

Kazimi expressed a certain level of doubt that there will be an impetus for reform in Islam while the jihadists are ascendant and the West is in retreat. He noted the coming "demographic disaster" in many areas in the Middle East, where 60% of the population is under 20.

Chesler agreed with one questioner that the jihadis would need to experience both military and intellectual defeat before they could be considered defeated, but was convinced that the West has not yet developed the will to vigorously engage in either battle.

By Ragnar Danneskjold, Typical Bitter Gun-Clinger at 01:28 PM | |